these Lancaster Whigs are satisfied with their experience of the experiment; and, like them, they protest against the Protest.

The Alleghany memorialists declare their opinion that the removal of the deposits was made without just cause, and that therefore it violates the word of honor of this government. And among the resolutions adopted by the Whig meeting at Columbia I find the following:

"Resolved, That the Bank of the United States has acted the part of a useful and faithful public servant; that the war now being waged against it is foolish, wicked, unjust, and calculated to injure the best interests of the country; and that the charter of that institution ought to be renewed, with such restrictions and modifications as the public good may require and the judgment of Congress ordain."

I believe this resolution is entirely true. The present state of things, in my judgment, exhibits the laws transgressed, the chartered rights of a corporate institution violated, the word of honor of the government broken. I think the withholding the deposits from the bank is a daily wrong, a confirmed infringement of its legal rights, inasmuch as it stipulated for the custody of these deposits, paid its money under that stipulation, and had done no act whatever contrary to its contract. I believe the suffering of the community is brought upon it by an act, not only unwise, but unjust; not only an act of folly, as it affects ourselves, but an act of positive wrong to others.

Mr. President, this is perhaps as fit an occasion as may occur to say something upon the motion which I made to the Senate, in the latter part of March, for leave to bring in a bill to continue for six years the charter of the Bank of the United States, with certain modifications. At that time, Sir, the country had been trying this notable experiment, or rather its own patience and forbearance had been on trial under its operation, almost six months. All men of the least pretension to sense and candor had become satisfied that very great distress existed in the country. The time for doubt and denial had gone by. The sneers which had previously been manifested in the Senate, whenever the pressure on the country was alluded to, had ceased. However men might dispute about the cause of the distress, the fact of its existence was too plain to be gainsaid. The merchants, the farmers, the manufacturers, and the mechanics had loaded

our tables with their remonstrances and memorials, and filled our halls with their committees. No measure of relief, meantime, was suggested by gentlemen connected with the administration. The only remedy was, as it now is, endurance. If we spoke of distress, they bade us hold our tongues and bear it. The sum and substance of their political philosophy was, "We must stand by the President; we must hold on upon the experiment."

In this state of things, Sir, I felt it my duty to prepare, for the consideration of Congress and the country, some measure of immediate and efficient relief. It might be rejected; but then an offer would have been made. The devotees to the experiment might cling to it, extol its wisdom, and predict its success; but the country would have an option. The condition of the country was such as was not to be trifled with; and therefore I sought for a measure that, if adopted, could not fail to be effectual. Against rash experiment, I prepared well-tried experience; in opposition to daring and speculative theory, I offered what forty years had proved to be safe, practical, and beneficial. Allow me to advert to the main provisions of the bill which I recommended, as I desire its character should be kept, to the eye of the public, in a clear and distinct light.

A short continuance of the present charter, with an addition of its exclusive right; so that, while this bank still continued, Congress, at its leisure, might provide another, if it chose, and bring it into existence, to take the place of this, at the end of six years;

A restoration of the deposits;

And a provision for enlarging the specie circulation, so as to increase, in fact, to a great extent, the hard money of the country, and to discountenance the circulation of small notes.

This is the substance of the measure, and if it shall be adopted the country will be relieved, and the bank will have time to collect its debts, and wind up its concerns, Congress will be at liberty, also, to adopt any system for the future which its wisdom shall approve; it may recharter this bank; it may create a new bank; it may decide it will have no bank. Meantime, and until its final decision shall be made, business will resume its wonted course, employment will revive, labor will be again in demand, commerce will spread its sails, and revenue begin

again to flow into the treasury. If there be one intelligent individual who denies that all these consequences would immediately follow the passage of this bill, that individual I have not met with. What is said is, not that this measure would not produce these beneficial effects, but that we can get along without it; that the experiment will yet succeed; and that, at any rate, the President and the party will put down the bank. If, Sir, this bill had passed within a fortnight from the time of its introduction, the country at this hour would have begun to resume its accustomed prosperity, activity, and cheerfulness; we should have despatched the public business, and been ready to go home, by the first day of June, to receive the cordial welcome of our constituents.

If we could pass it now, although the case has been growing constantly worse, yet even now it would in ten days give an entire change to the face of things. It would in a month put the cotton-mills again in motion, bring up the prices of lumber, wheat, and other products of the farm, reanimate internal trade, put life into the factories, and the mechanic pursuits, in which life is now suspended, gladden labor with the certainty of fair wages, restore confidence, bring back credit, and make the country once more what it was twelve months ago. All this good is within our reach, if we will abandon theories, when they are proved and demonstrated to be fallacious; give up follies, now that they stand as exposed and acknowledged follies; and restore the reign of the law, of justice, of good sense, and of experience.

When I last addressed the Senate on this subject, in the latter part of March, I manifested my intention to call it up again on the 21st of April. The opinion of the Senate, both on the causes of the public distress, and on the proper remedy, were very well known. A majority, it was not doubted, disapproved the whole executive proceeding in removing the public moneys from the bank, and would regard their return as the first step in reëstablishing a proper state of things. And a continuance of the present bank, with modifications, was supposed, also, to be the measure which a majority was most likely to concur in, as the remedy best suited to the occasion. The House of Representatives had done nothing to commit itself, one way or the other. Whatever might be conjectured of its course, it had come to no decision.

But before the 21st of April came, that honorable body had expressed its opinion. It had decided, by a very large majority, and in the most general terms, that the bank should not be rechartered. While this purpose remains, it is obvious that any proceeding of the Senate on the subject must be nugatory. The Senate cannot recharter the bank. The Senate, of itself, has no power to pass measures for the public relief. It can, indeed, check the measures of other branches; it can resist what it deems to be wrong, and it may show itself ready to concur in wise and proper measures of relief; but it can do no more. It would seem, therefore, to be hardly worth while to occupy the attention of the Senate with propositions for relief, to which the other house has, beforehand, manifested its determined opposition. Until there is some intimation of a change of opinion in that house, it is useless to press the measure which I proposed. For the present, therefore, I shall suffer the subject to remain where it is. When I shall next call it up will, of course, depend on circumstances. Of the measure itself, I retain the same opinion as I expressed on its introduction. It is a prompt measure; it is an efficient measure; it is a conciliatory measure; and it is the only measure which promises relief to the country. These are my opinions; and those who oppose this measure, and have nothing to propose but a confirmation of the present state of things, act on their own responsibility. Sir, the question is before the country. Shall the bank be rechartered for a short period, until it can collect its debts, and wind up its concerns, without distressing the people? or shall it be left to collect its debts in the short period of its charter which yet remains, whatever may be the consequences to the public?

Mr. President, if Congress see fit to embrace the latter branch of the alternative; if it will not recharter the bank, even for a day, or under any modification; if it will make no new bank; if it will leave the country, in its present condition, to struggle with its difficulties and its distresses as it can;-it will be recollected, at least, that all this is not the result of necessity. It will be recollected that a different policy was proposed; that a fair and conciliatory measure was offered, was earnestly pressed on the attention of Congress, and was rejected.

Let gentlemen, then, Sir, take the consequences upon them

selves. If the summer shall prove to be one of great embarrassment; if business shall be suspended; if trade shall stagnate; if employment for labor shall not be found; if the revenue shall fall off one half,-let it be remembered, that these consequences, one and all, might have been this day easily prevented; that plain, easy, and adequate means of prevention were proposed, but that gentlemen chose to adhere to their theories, their experiments, and their predetermined course of policy, against all remonstrances, as well within the walls of Congress as without.

Mr. President, while, like others, I am engaged here every morning in presenting to the Senate the proceedings of public meetings and the memorials of individuals, supplicating Congress to restore the public prosperity and to reëstablish the authority of the laws, I think it due to those who thus do me the honor to make me the organ of their sentiments and their wishes, and indeed to the whole country, that I should express my own opinions upon the present state of things, and upon the prospects before us.

In the first place, then, Sir, I wish to express my belief, that nearly all practical men and men of business in the country, friends or foes of the administration, have become satisfied that the "experiment" is a complete failure. Whatever some may, at one time, have believed, and whatever others have hoped, eight months' experience has settled the question. Yes, Sir, I believe that friends as well as foes now see that the attempt to sustain the currency and maintain commercial credit by the aid of State banks has hopelessly failed. With all the aid of gov ernment, with all that party zeal could do for them, these banks have not been able to relieve the community; they have not been able to restore confidence. Confidence is a thing not to be produced by compulsion. Men cannot be forced into trust. Good credit, within local limits, these banks, or some of them, possessed; but there it naturally stopped, and cannot be forced farther.

As far as I understand, at least in this part of the country, the usual occurrences are these. If a man has the notes of State banks to any amount, he goes to the banks, and gets specie for them. Having obtained his specie, he very often goes to the Bank of the United States, and exchanges it for bills. The re